Contents

Description

The release group type is a release group attribute that describes what kind of release group it is. It consists of two parts, both of which are described in the sections below. Firstly there is the base type, which should be exactly one of Album, Single, EP, Compilation and Other. Secondly, there are additional flags, which may or may not be set for the release group: Soundtrack, Spokenword, Interview, Live and Audiobook.

Base types

Every release group falls in to exactly one of the following categories.

Album

An album, perhaps better defined as a "Long Play" (LP) release, generally consists of previously unreleased material. This includes album re-issues, with or without bonus tracks.

Single

A single has different definitions depending on the market it is released for.

In the US market, a single typically has one main song and possibly a handful of additional tracks or remixes of the main track; the single is usually named after its main song; the single is primarily released to get radio play and to promote release sales.

The U.K. market (also Australia and Europe) is similar to the US market, however singles are often released as a two disc set, with each disc sold separately. They also sometimes have a longer version of the single (often combining the tracks from the two disc version) which is very similar to the US style single, and this is referred to as a "maxi-single". (In some cases the maxi-single is longer than the release the single comes from!)

The Japanese market is much more single driven. The defining factor is typically the length of the single and the price it is sold at. Up until 1995 it was common that these singles would be released using a mini-cd format, which is basically a much smaller CD typically 8 cm in diameter. Around 1995 the 8cm single was phased out, and the standard 12cm CD single is more common now; generally re-releases of singles from pre-1995 will be released on the 12cm format, even if they were originally released on the 8cm format. Japanese singles often come with instrumental versions of the songs and also have maxi-singles like the UK with remixed versions of the songs. Sometimes a maxi-single will have more tracks than an EP but as it's all alternate versions of the same 2-3 songs it is still classified as a single.

There are other variations of the single called a "split single" where songs by two different artists are released on the one disc, typically vinyl. The term "B-Side" comes from the era when singles were released on 7 inch (or sometimes 12 inch) vinyl with a song on each side, and so side A is the track that the single is named for, and the other side - side B - would contain a bonus song, or sometimes even the same song.

EP

An EP is a so-called "Extended Play" release and often contains the letters EP in the title. Generally an EP will be shorter than a full length release (an LP or "Long Play") and the tracks are usually exclusive to the EP, in other words the tracks don't come from a previously issued release. EP is fairly difficult to define; usually it should only be assumed that a release is an EP if the artist defines it as such.

Compilation

A compilation, for the purposes of the MusicBrainz database, covers the following types of releases:

an anthology, which is defined as being a group of songs from various sources combined together as a "best of" or retrospective type release.

a various artists song collection, usually based on a general theme ("Songs for Lovers"), a particular year ("Hits of 1998"), or some other kind of grouping ("Songs From the Movies", the "Café del Mar" series, etc).

The MusicBrainz project does not generally consider the following to be compilations:

a tribute release containing covers of another artists work.

a classical release containing new recordings of a classical artists work.

a release containing two albums and/or EPs (these should be tagged as either an 'album' or an 'EP' depending on the circumstances).

Note that there is a certain amount of crossover within the definition of compilation and the other types of release, for example a various artists soundtrack could also be considered a compilation. In general, compilation should be superseded by other release attributes when required.

Other

Any release that does not fit or can't decisively be placed in any of the categories above.

Additional Flags

A release group has one or more of these properties. Two of them only make sense with the Other base type, so the first part of each description lists the base types with which the flag can be used.

Live

Can be used with any base type.

A release that was recorded live.

Classical

Can be used with any base type.

A release group with this flag follows the Classical_Style_Guide. This is used for releases that are entirely, or predominantly, performances of classical music. The flag is useful because it allows tagging software such as MusicBrainz Picard to automatically treat such releases differently.

Soundtrack

Can be used with any base type.

This flag signifies that the release group contains the musical score to a movie, TV series, stage show, computer game or the like. In the specific case of computer games, a game CD with audio tracks should be classified as a soundtrack: the musical properties of the CD are more interesting to MusicBrainz than its data.